A detention officer with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office was fired and arrested last week after being accused of using excessive force during an inmate exchange with Alpharetta police, officials said.
Monique Clark, 31, is facing felony counts of aggravated assault and violation of oath by a public officer, along with a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct, Fulton Sheriff Pat Labat said Monday. The incident that resulted in Clark’s charges took place June 5 and was captured by the Alpharetta officers’ body-worn cameras.
Labat said Clark “willfully and intentionally (used) excessive and unnecessary force” during the custody transfer of a detainee in Alpharetta, but did not share further details. Clark, who had been employed with the Fulton sheriff’s office since 2016, was fired soon after the incident.
“The indefensible acts of this one officer do not reflect the mission of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office,” Labat said. “Being a detention officer is a difficult job but even under challenging circumstances there is absolutely no excuse for the behavior that led to this arrest.”
Clark’s firing and charges come on the heels of a rash of recent law enforcement arrests, including another Fulton deputy involved in the high-profile Young Slime Life trial.
Former courtroom deputy Akeiba Stanley faces multiple charges after she was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Christian Eppinger, a defendant in the YSL case. Stanley was arrested earlier this month, just days after Eppinger’s lawyer’s laptop was seized in the courtroom.
In Clayton County, five jail employees and contractors have been arrested in recent weeks on charges related to stealing from inmates, providing contraband and even planning an attack on an inmate. The arrests are part of an initiative Clayton Sheriff Levon Allen called “Operation Clean House.”
“I would rather have one good deputy than 100 crooked ones,” Allen said. “I won’t stop until I get every last one of them out of my agency.”
Law enforcement arrests in 2023
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